Garry Kasparov chess program faces 60, created by Turing

The 100 anniversary of the birth of alan turing was celebrated in various ways around the world. One was the confrontation between Chess legend Garry Kasparov , and the program written by hand for over 60 years by Turing himself .

In 1952, the absence of any machine powerful enough to run the “Turochamp” Turing played chess against a friend pretending to be the computer, taking half an hour to calculate every move on the board. There are now machines that can run it and was at Manchester University which set the stage for the duel.

Turochamp work planning what the next two plays of the confrontation. The professional chess player he was defeated in just 16 moves, which perhaps is not surprising considering it is the first chess program was written.

Supercomputers like Deep Blue from IBM were far more complicated for Kasparov, however, this device existed only 45 years after Turing wrote after the Turochamp. The program there is a further demonstration of the capabilities that had the mathematician.

“Alan Turing is one of the few people whom one could say that had they lived longer, the world would be a different place,” said Kasparov.